girl's image was
bright and clear in his mind, and the recollection of her engaging ways
and sweet and sunny disposition was undimmed. He was not likely to find
another like her in one lifetime.

He had been lunching with the Commandant and some of the Police
officers. The former's hospitable and unpretentious bungalow was always
open house--a hospitality that our friend Dick was fond of availing
himself of, for after the time he had spent with the Police, and the
hard knocks he had shared with them, he felt as one of themselves; and
but for that other attraction would have been in no hurry to bid
farewell to a lot of such thundering good fellows, as he defined them on
every occasion. Yet now, as he strolled along the wide dusty road, he
felt hipped.

"Why, if it isn't Mr Selmes!"

Dick, who was in a brown study, started at the voice--a feminine voice--
then stared. He saw before him the mother of the small boy he had
jumped into the sea to save--at some risk to his own life; and he had
forgotten her very existence, and the cordial hopes she had expressed
that he would one day see his way to paying them a visit. Now she was
standing there with a smile and an outstretched hand, the same small boy
hanging on to her by the other.

"How do you do, Mrs Waybridge," said Dick, heartily. "Why, here's
Jacky. Well, young 'un, and how's yourself?"

"And Jacky wouldn't have been here but for you," rejoined the other,
with feeling. "And--"

Dick interrupted.

"Now, Mrs Waybridge, I think we agreed that that subject was to be
treated as--er--a somewhat stale one," he said deprecatorily.

"I'm sure I never agreed to anything of the sort," she laughed. "But
who would have thought of finding you here in Komgha. Why--what's the
matter with your arm?" becoming alive to the fact that it was in a
sling. "You haven't been in the war, have you?"

"Haven't I? Had a most ripping time of it too. By Jingo, if it hadn't
been for this confounded scratch, I'd have been in it still. But Blunt
turned so solemn over it and ordered me out."

"Who?"

"Blunt, the F.A.M.P. surgeon."

"And so you've come back wounded. But it's not serious?"

"No, indeed. It's a mere scratch. But, what brings you here, Mrs
Waybridge, it's my turn to ask?"

"Why, we live close here; our farm is out towards the Kabousie, only a
few miles, and you've got to come and stay with us--now--to-day. Where
are you staying here?"

"Nominally at Pag